Sophia Scriptura

Refutation of All Heresies 5.15.4

Hippolytus of Rome · Refutation of All Heresies · ca. 222–235 · Rome · Read in context

Authorship disputed: The work names no author. Book 1 was long printed among Origen's works as the Philosophumena; after books 4–10 were found in a manuscript from Mount Athos (published 1851), it was assigned to Hippolytus, the usual view today, though some scholars ascribe it to another Roman writer of the same circle. Books 2 and 3 are lost, and book 4 lacks its beginning.

Summary: The Peratae turned the astrologers' cardinal points into God (the center) and left and right powers.

Greek text · Duncker–Schneidewin, 188

Ἐπεὶ γοῦν οἱ ἀστρολόγοι ἴσασιν ὡροσκόπον καὶ μεσουράνημα, καὶ δύσιν καὶ ἀντιμεσουράνημα, καὶ τούτων τῶν ἄστρων ἄλλοτε ἄλλως κινουμένων διὰ τὴν στροφὴν ἀεὶ τοῦ παντὸς ἄλλοτε ἄλλα ἀποκλίματα εἶναι κατὰ κέντρον, καὶ κέντροις ἐπαναφοράς, ἀλληγοροῦντες τὴν διαταγὴν τῶν ἀστρολόγων τὸ μὲν κέντρον οἱονεὶ θεὸν καὶ μονάδα καὶ κύριον τῆς πάσης γενέσεως ὑποτυποῦσι, τὸ δὲ ἀπόκλιμα ἀριστερόν, τὴν δʼ ἐπαναφορὰν δεξιόν.

English · Claude translation

Since, then, the astrologers know the horoscope and the mid-heaven, the setting and the anti-mid-heaven, and that, since these stars move now one way and now another because of the constant revolution of the universe, there are at different times different declinations from a center and ascensions toward the centers, the Peratae, allegorizing the astrologers' arrangement, depict the center as a kind of God and monad and lord of all generation, the declination as left, and the ascension as right.

About this passage

Source
Duncker–Schneidewin, 188 · Ludwig Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, eds., S. Hippolyti episcopi et martyris Refutationis omnium haeresium librorum decem quae supersunt (Göttingen: Dieterich, 1859); section divisions from Paul Wendland, ed., Hippolytus Werke 3: Refutatio omnium haeresium, GCS 26 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1916) · Greek text: L. Duncker and F. G. Schneidewin, Refutationis omnium haeresium (Göttingen, 1859), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library; section divisions from P. Wendland (GCS 26, 1916), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin); both CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Duncker–Schneidewin. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Duncker–Schneidewin; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Its chapter numbers differ from the standard (Wendland) numbering used here.
Topics
Heresy

Notes

Translation notes

  • Horoscope (the rising point), mid-heaven, setting, and anti-mid-heaven are the four “centers” (cardinal points) of astrology.

Cite this passage

Hippolytus, Haer. 5.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/15/4/).

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Plain text
Hippolytus, Haer. 5.15.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hippolytus-refutatio/5/15/4/).

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